Dead Hearts
by SiriuslyBroken
Summary: Caroline was a vampire. That much she knew. She also knew that trying to fight a 1000 year old Original hybrid wasn't an option. So when her survival instinct kicked in, she did the only thing she possibly knew she could do: run.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Blue. Her eyes were once darker than frosty ice yet lighter than the deepest blue of the oceans. But today, she chose green. She hated green, but she loved it. The color reminded her of a past she so desperately sought to forget. Running, crossing over ten state lines, and flying over vast oceans could not in the least help her forget the life she left behind. As Caroline packed her bags, she left the extravagant, green evening dress hanging in her closet;the beautiful dress that she had worn when she was crowned Miss Mystic Falls all those years ago. Today, she wore yellow. Just as today, her piercing green eyes caught the attention of every male onlooker. And today, she wasn't the blonde haired, doe eyed, innocent girl from Mystic Falls. She seductively swayed her hips as she sauntered to the bar, tossing her copper hair over her shoulder. Suddenly, she looked over her shoulder to see if someone was watching her. She found many eyes watching her, but not the pair of eyes she was searching for. Caroline let out a sigh of relief.

"I'll take a gin on the rocks," Caroline ordered.

"Your choice of liquor has changed, as your hair and eye color have," a familiar voice said over her shoulder. "Might I add that your green eyes look positively striking, but I prefer the blue-eyed, blonde Caroline that I once knew."

Caroline froze, struck in complete and utter fear. That voice. _How the hell did he find me?_

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_**A/N: Very, very short prologue, I know! But the next chapter climaxes quickly, I promise! Reviews are the bane of my existence. Please, please review :) xo Tish**  
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	2. Forget

**Forget**

"Please, no more." Caroline whimpered into the cold, foul-smelling room. The beautiful rays of sun that she had once spent her human days under, now pierced her skin. Oh, the irony of it was excruciating. How she took for granted the warmth and comfort that sunlight once brought her. Being a vampire came with many perks, including the blessing of a resilient layer of skin. Without her daylight ring to protect her, however, the sunlight threatened to skin her alive. Her captor used the same contraption that her father used to torture her. With the pull of a lever, her captor could easily control the filtration of sunlight into the room and burn Caroline alive.

Caroline awoke with a start. Her hair was matted with both sweat and her own dried blood and she was still strapped down to the wooden chair. She tried to free herself from the heavy restraints, but as they wouldn't budge, she decided that they must have been charmed by a witch. Before her captor strapped her in that damned chair, he held her down with unbelievable strength and forced her head into the dirty wash basin that was filled to the brim with vervain. Caroline had screamed in reaction to the pain as she felt every inch of her body tingle and then burn as if she had been set on fire. At that moment, however, Caroline knew that fire would have been a blessing compared to the pain that surged through every muscle, vein and nerve in her entire body. It felt as if someone had slowly and agonizingly skinned her alive. As she opened her mouth to scream, she realized it was a bad idea when the vervain traveled into her mouth and down her throat, setting her insides had been almost an hour ago.

For almost a week and a half now, Caroline had been literally skinned alive with a cursed knife. She had been stabbed in numerous places with wooden stakes. Her veins have been injected with vervain and the her skin was burned from the inside out. Her skin had been sliced and cut and she had been shot with numerous wooden bullets to the chest, arms, back, legs, and torso. Her captor had forced hallucinations into her mind, making her delusional and unable to distinguish between reality, memories, and inserted , she had hallucinations of ripping her own mother's throat out and feeding from her and once she had a hallucination of both her parents locking her up and torturing her, trying to "fix" her vampirism.

"I think I've given you enough time to rest. You're going to like this one, dearest," her captor said mockingly.

"Go to hell," Caroline spat blood in the direction the voice came from. She could hear the smirk coming from those putrid lips as he spoke the next words.

"Now, now such profane words should not come from such beautiful lips.  
He brushed the dagger against Caroline's bloody lips, to emphasize how brilliantly sharp the tip was. " I've been soaking it, you see, with vervain. Your favorite, isn't it? You see this knife is very special. I cursed it so that every time I stick this beautiful dagger into your beautiful body, the pain will multiply! It involves a little arithmetic, but I'm sure an intelligent girl like you could figure it out. I stab you two times, the pain is four times as unbearable as the first! Wonderful isn't it?" his eerie chuckle filled the room. "The pain you will feel will be absolutely delicious. Well, to me anyways," he said licking his lips slowly.

Her captor took out a rusty metal box and slammed it onto the counter. He pulled out a few syringes and sat on his heels to face Caroline. Caroline gasped as she finally saw her captor under the light. His eyes were as red as blood and they were filled with hunger. Hunger for pain, her pain specifically.

"Now these, these darling little syringes are packed with vervain, I'm positive the fun we were having before will not compare to how much fun we're going to have now."

"You know he won't hesitate to make you suffer for this," she raised her voice, even more furious. "Who the hell are you anyways?"

" I am not afraid of Klaus, dear Caroline. My name is Lucian and Klaus was the reason I was kept confined in hell. You see, I was a very powerful witch in my time, and the only witch that Klaus could get his hands on. He didn't realize how much power I had, at first. One day I managed to bring my son back from the dead. It came with a very deadly price, my soul. When Klaus discovered my undead son, he commanded me to bring back someone he cared very much for. As Klaus was dead and had no soul, I told him that I could not and even if I could, I wouldn't. The spirits were already furious that I used black magic to bring back my son. Klaus was unrelenting. He threatened to kill my son and I could not let him. So I disregarded the spirit's warnings and I took the first step in bringing back Klaus's brother, Henrik. When the spirits realized what I was about to do, I tried bargaining with them, but they wouldn't have any of it. They killed my son and destroyed his spirit, locking him away in purgatory forever, unable to cross over to the other side. To punish me further, they sent me to the farthest pits of hell, left to rot away as the demons picked at my flesh every hour of every day for centuries. So, I've been to hell and back, and through those trips I've become ten times stronger than your precious Original hybrid," Lucian finished.

"Then why go through the trouble of torturing me? Why don't you just go after him, if you're so strong? You're a coward!" Caroline screamed, immediately regretting her words.

Caroline despised Lucian and she didn't know how much more of his torture she could endure before she met her true death, but the idea of Klaus in her position was unbearable._ It's the pain talking._She decided. She would never wish this pain on any other person, not even Damon, who had used her for sex. Not even Tyler, who had fallen in love with Hayley and then crushed her heart. Not even her father, who had inflicted torture on her once upon a time. Not even Alaric who had stabbed her father to death. And especially not Klaus, because no matter how much pain he had inflicted upon her friends and herself too, she found herself hoping that he would never have to endure this type of pain.

"The answer is very simple, my sweet, sweet Caroline," Lucian's face was inches away from Caroline's and she could feel his hot, sticky breath on her face. "You have the one thing that makes him human. You have his soul. With you alive, he will be suffering in endless misery if the two of you cannot be together. He will fall into oblivion, and that is exactly what I need to destroy him. Once he is in too deep and unable to crawl out on his hands and knees, I will destroy him once and for all, killing not only him but all the vampires he has ever created. After I destroy him, I will go after the rest of his family and rid the world of you abominable creatures."

"Why don't you just kill me now then? That would be the easiest!" she screamed at him, hot, angry tears pouring out of her eyes.

"Oh Caroline, how naive you are. Killing you would deviate from the plan. You see, if I kill you, he will stop at nothing to destroy me. Killing you would only fuel his anger and make it utterly impossible for me to even try to touch him. Then, all this newfound strength I have would be of no use. "

"So. What are you going to do to me?" she whimpered.

"You will see, won't you?" his smile twisted his face into a repulsive, evil grin. He placed both hands at either side of her temples and started chanting incoherent words.

**oblivisci veritatem. quod scis esse mendacium. timent unum ames. timere. non desinas, currit. currere. semper despíciam humerum vestrum. confidere nemo. timere amas, nisi unum.** _forget the truth. what you know is a lie. fear the one you love. be afraid. don't stop running. run. always look over your shoulder. trust no one. fear only the one you love._

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**A/N: Yes, the incantation is in Latin. I hope all the Latin scholars out there can forgive me if my grammar is off! Please review!**

** xo Tish**_  
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